I wiped the blood from my lip with my sleeve and used the chair to pull myself upright. My hand was swelling fast. I couldn’t even curl my fingers into a fist. Still, I grabbed my purse and walked out. No shouting. No drama. I wasn’t going to give her that.

Outside, the sun felt too bright and too cheerful, like the world hadn’t gotten the memo that something inside me had snapped. I got into my car and sat behind the wheel, shaking.

Then my phone buzzed.A message from Jacob.“Please don’t come back. It’s better this way. Stay away from us.”I stared at the words.Us. Not me. Not “I’m sorry, Mom.” Just us, like they were a team and I was the outsider. Like I had become a stranger in the family I built with my own hands.

I drove straight to an urgent care off the main road, the kind tucked between a pharmacy and a sandwich shop with a faded flag flapping in the winter wind. Fluorescent lights hummed above me while a nurse wrapped my arm and asked me to rate my pain.